When natural disaster strikes: Five lessons to ready your business and support community resilience - Australian Business Roundtable
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When natural disaster strikes: Five lessons to ready your business and support community resilience
Introduction
Members of the Australian Business Roundtable for By sharing knowledge, collaborating and leading by
Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities (ABR) have example, the ABR believes business leaders can help
seen the impacts of many natural disasters firsthand, move the dial on national resilience in ways that support
leading to a shared desire to collaborate on resilience. government, business and community decisions. With a
window into Members’ operations, this article shares five
Following the catastrophic bushfires of 2019–20, lessons and case studies, hoping to encourage other
Members discussed individual experiences and the organisations to better understand – and take steps to
actions organisations had taken before, during and after improve – their own resilience, as well as improve the
these events. It was clear that Members faced similar resilience of their employees and communities.
challenges and saw great value in learning from each
other about how to best support communities during
these critical times of need.
Our five lessons
1. Businesses can play a critical role in a coordinated response
to natural disasters.
2. Disaster preparedness needs to be part of the
business plan.
3. A transparent and authentic disaster response gives confidence
to communities and stakeholders.
4. Employees can help businesses respond, create meaningful
engagement and build community goodwill.
5. Institutional knowledge and business resources can be used to
build resilience in customers.
Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities 2
Lesson 1:
Businesses can play a critical role in a
coordinated response to natural disasters.
Resilience to natural disasters is a shared responsibility.
When it comes to disaster response and relief, everyone
can have a place at the table. There are opportunities for
business leaders across Australia to use their expertise
and networks to support communities before, during and
after a natural disaster.
Case study
Optus’ disaster response.
Optus’ business operations are critical in an emergency
situation. At the same time, Optus relies on infrastructure
that’s susceptible to damage from natural disasters.
During the 2019–20 bushfires, Optus was able to help
affected communities immediately by deploying SatCats –
mobile trailer-mounted satellites – to areas across New
South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia where mobile
infrastructure had been damaged. Its Go Connectivity
service also ensures that, should the wider network fail,
business customers in disaster-affected areas can stay
connected via 4G backup and dual router setups.
To support longer-term efforts as communities transition
into recovery, Optus also established a series of grants –
known as Green Shoots grants – dedicated to helping
small businesses in fire-affected regions re-establish
themselves. Part of this initiative encompasses
Source: Optus
complimentary devices and internet service, as well
as dedicated, ongoing IT support.
With a focus on preventing future extreme weather events “In 2012, following the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi,
from becoming disasters, Optus partnered with Australian we listened to customers desperately appealing for
National University to create the ANU-Optus Bushfire help to locate family members who had lost mobile
Research Centre of Excellence. The pilot program, connectivity during the floods, and saw euphoric
moments with the State Emergency Service personnel
launched in October 2020, seeks to develop technology-
when mobile connectivity was brought back up with
based responses to help defeat future bushfires.
mobile cell-sites on wheels. These rang home to
everyone the criticality of our network infrastructure
Optus’ response demonstrates an arc of support from resilience and unwavering customer support through
reaction, to recovery, to prevention – underscoring the critical the best of times and the worst of any crisis.”
role businesses can play in supporting communities.
— Optus
Five lessons to ready your business and support community resilience 3
Lesson 2:
Disaster preparedness needs to be part
of the business plan.
While the term ‘unprecedented’ was often used to describe In areas where recovery centres weren’t established, IAG
the 2019–20 bushfire season, the Royal Commission into deployed its Major Event Rapid Response Vehicles to bring
National Natural Disaster Arrangements has made clear that employees to local communities, where they stayed for
“unprecedented is not a reason to be unprepared. We need extended periods to ensure customers’ needs were met.
to be prepared for the future.” Further, as research IAG also has established policies to prioritise the use of
from Munich Re indicates, anthropogenic climate change local tradespeople and suppliers to carry out repairs and
is creating a longer-lasting fire season in Australia. We’re reconstruction wherever possible, which adds another
facing hotter, more dangerous weather more frequently and important avenue of support to local communities dealing
for longer periods. These findings align with those of IAG’s with the aftermath of a disaster.
second edition of its Severe Weather in a Changing Climate
report, published in partnership with the US National Center
for Atmospheric Research in September 2020.
As we face an increasingly uncertain environmental future,
preparation for similar – or more severe – events is a
necessity, as is consideration for their compounding
impacts on our communities and operations.
Case study
IAG’s grounded approach.
IAG is Australia’s largest general insurer, and its purpose
is to ‘make your world a safer place’. Across its brands –
including NRMA Insurance, CGU and WFI – IAG has been Source: IAG
helping customers and communities recover from the
2019–20 bushfire season, including responding to more
than 12,400 claims.
“As Australia’s largest general insurer, responding
to severe weather events is central to what we
To ensure it can respond quickly to disasters, IAG has do. Our dedicated national Major Event Claims
embedded disaster response into its business plan. This response team is resourced year-round to ensure
includes its dedicated Major Events Response team that is we can respond quickly to help our customers get
on-call 24/7 and is supported by a dedicated Major Event back on their feet.”
Claims team that prioritises claims. — IAG
During the 2019–20 bushfires, IAG deployed employees
to recovery centres in some of the most affected areas,
including Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, Bega, Bairnsdale,
Mallacoota, Lobethal and Mount Barker. These employees
met customers face-to-face to help them process their claims
and offer financial assistance, emergency accommodation
and support.
Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities 4
Lesson 3:
A transparent and authentic disaster response gives
confidence to communities and stakeholders.
The emergency response network relies on effective
collaboration and trust across public, private and
community sector actors. Critical actors – like weather
forecasters and local government officials – are expected
to be transparent and authentic in their communications,
and the same applies to businesses and not-for-profit
organisations during a disaster.
Case study
Australian Red Cross’
public reporting.
Australian Red Cross plays an essential role in supporting
people before, during and after disaster. Through the
financial generosity of the Australian public and people
around the world, Australian Red Cross raised $239 million
(from July 2019) to help with its work to meet the financial Heavy smoke and poor visibility on the Princes Highway in Victoria
and longer-term psychosocial support needs of those near the NSW border during the bushfire emergency in January 2020.
affected by the 2019–20 bushfires. Source: Australian Red Cross
Australian Red Cross’ use of this funding was subject to
intense media scrutiny. Some reporting didn’t fully reflect an “We recognise [the] need for trust and
understanding of the complexity and long-term nature of the accountability and have sought to ensure
response and recovery process. absolute transparency in our operations through
extensive public reports on the collection and
Where a disaster has triggered an outpouring of generosity, distribution of our Disaster Relief and Recovery
there is a need for increased transparency. Beyond the Fund, including our recent Bushfires Report.”
strict compliance obligations charities are bound by, donors — Australian Red Cross
want to be able to see the impact of their donation, and
governments need to know what gaps to fill.
Australian Red Cross recognised this and sought to embed
transparency across its response, consistently producing
comprehensive breakdowns of where funds had been
allocated. This included regular updates on the distribution
of funds to a wide range of donors, supporters and other
stakeholders. Comprehensive reports have detailed the
distribution of funds, and reporting will continue until the
funds are fully expended. As of 31 December 2020, $207
million of the total received was disbursed or spent.
This level of transparency is an essential component of
building – and maintaining – public trust.
Five lessons to ready your business and support community resilience 5
Lesson 4:
Employees can help businesses respond, create
meaningful engagement and build community goodwill.
Disasters are often quantified in terms of their By creating the right teams for the right tasks and
collective impact: the lives lost, the cost of the empowering individuals to take action, Westpac Group
devastation, the amount of infrastructure needed to has been able to help customers and communities when
recover. These metrics help to capture the scale of it matters most.
these events. However, that can mean the impacts on,
and actions of, individuals are lost, when often it’s at
the individual level that the response is led.
Case study
Westpac Group empowering
employees for community
support.
Westpac Group’s approach to disaster response builds on
a long history of disaster experience and continues to be
refined through learnings from each event.
Acknowledging the scale of the 2019–20 bushfires, Westpac
created a new role – CEO, Bushfire Recovery – to oversee
the distribution of its bushfire support recovery package.
This included a dedicated team of employees who collect
and prepare weekly data insights as well as work directly Source: Westpac Group
with state and federal governments.
To help its customers manage their finances, Westpac
provided around 1,980 disaster relief packages, including “I remember a relatively minor but meaningful
story where an employee arranged cash vouchers
assistance with repayment deferrals. It also provided $3.83
for a customer who’d lost some work tools and
million in emergency cash grants to consumer and business
farm equipment in bushfires to help replace
customers and oversaw the collection and distribution of
them, apparently leaving him amazed at the
more than $1.4 million in donations to community groups and unnecessary but very much appreciated gesture.”
charities. Any employee who donated to a charity providing
— Westpac Group
disaster relief had their donation matched by the Group.
Westpac Group’s Empower Me fund gave individual
employees the power to directly and immediately support
their customers. In just one example, a Group employee
helped to replace an irrigation pipe at a devastated winery
in the Adelaide Hills.
Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities 6
Lesson 5:
Institutional knowledge and business resources
can be used to build resilience in customers.
Often, businesses have resources and distribution Infrastructure, knowledge or datasets can directly or
networks that allow them to communicate rapidly indirectly support customer disaster resilience in partnership
and widely to their customers and communities. with others. For example, telecommunications providers like
By leveraging these resources and, where possible, Optus communicated directly with state and commonwealth
collaborating with others, businesses can become agencies when bushfires disrupted mobile service in 149
trusted sources of information and education. network regions; staff were embedded in departmental
When this is done consistently and with relevant response teams to boost efficiencies during critical
expertise, improved brand consideration and customer developments, and information was shared directly.
loyalty can be a co-benefit of customer resilience.
IAG and Australian Red Cross have also worked
Case study collaboratively to co-create the Get Prepared app. During
the 2019–20 bushfire season, both organisations stepped
Developing community up their messaging efforts to promote the app and saw
and customer preparedness increased community uptake. Available for iOS and Android,
resources. the app builds on Australian Red Cross’ RediPlan framework
to help people create an emergency plan for a disaster. It
ABR members have been active in helping customers build incentivises preventive action by including simple checklists,
resilience to natural disasters by understanding the risks they and it encourages users to register a network of close
face and preparing for these major events. supports who can be contacted in an emergency.
IAG leverages the work of its in-house Natural Perils team, These endeavours highlight the abilities of businesses to
which includes climate scientists and meteorologists, to take an active role in helping customers build resilience to
support strategic community resilience programs and natural disasters by understanding their risk and preparing
advocacy. IAG publicly released research reports and for what will happen when disaster occurs.
fact sheets in 2019 and 2020 that drive education and
risk awareness about natural perils and severe weather,
with the aim that they can be of use to governments, “The bushfires of 2019–20 were a stark
decision makers, business and the community when demonstration of what Australia’s future will
they are considering how to respond to high-impact look like unless we take action to help
weather changes. communities adapt to climate change and
increase community resilience.”
Taking learnings from customers, Westpac launched a — Australian Red Cross
Disaster Help Hub in November 2020 to help Australians
prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.
The hub provides information on how to prepare homes for
severe weather events, as well as access disaster relief,
support and financial resources to help during recovery.
Five lessons to ready your business and support community resilience 7Conclusion
While disaster response and recovery can seem continuous, Therefore, human connections are vital in the face of
there is always time for reflection to improve responses to these disasters. Whether or not they are frontline or directly
the next emergency or event. The needs and expectations affected by disaster, employees have a central role to
of communities and customers will evolve – and so will the play across disaster prevention, preparedness, response
business relationship with customer resilience. and recovery – both as employees and as members of
their communities.
In the future, the economic and social costs of increasingly
catastrophic natural disasters will become even more From building disaster preparedness into business plans,
devastating to businesses and their communities who aren’t to meeting face-to-face with affected communities, to
prepared. ABR Member experiences show how vital it is for sharing experience and knowledge both among leadership
businesses to act to support disaster resilience, both for their and with the Australian public, business leaders have the
employees and the wider community. opportunity – and the institutional know-how – to develop
resilient and proactive approaches to natural disaster
For most people affected by disaster, the journey to preparedness that will directly support their communities
recovery is long and not linear. Research by the University of before, during and after the next inevitable event.
Melbourne, with Australian Red Cross and others, indicates
that the recovery timeline is up to five years, with emotional
peaks and troughs throughout.
During natural disasters, Optus sets up Community Trucks to give out free mobile SIMs and charging stations to help local communities
reconnect with their loved ones. Source: Optus
Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities 8About the ABR
The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster As a collective, we’ve commissioned five well-received
Resilience & Safer Communities (ABR) was formed in research reports that provide clear evidence of how
December 2012 by business and organisational leaders important it is to understand the increasing costs of
with a shared vision to ensure that communities across natural disasters and recommendations for action in the
Australia are better able to prepare for, respond to and public and private sectors.
recover from natural disasters.
Working collaboratively with all levels of government,
Our purpose is to make Australian communities we’ve also contributed to an evidence base that’s been
safer by improving disaster resilience and climate cited in policies and programs, including the National
change preparedness. We do this by expanding Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, National Action Plan
knowledge, collaborating and leading by example and state-based resilience strategies. We also submitted
to help influence decisions made by governments, to the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster
businesses and communities. Arrangements (2020) and welcome the opportunity to
offer our expertise and insights to government to realise
The ABR has established itself as the key business these recommendations.
community representative and an influential participant in
efforts to reduce disaster risk and increase resilience.
australianbusinessroundtable.com.au
Email: australianbusinessroundtable@iag.com.au Darling Park 2, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Five lessons to ready your business and support community resilience 9References
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